Hunter Pence has the manic energy of a gangly man-bird. On average, Hunter Pence’s home run trots last about 20 seconds. So in the last week, he’s run for about minute and twenty seconds while the rest of the world has watched, thinking, “I wonder if he was raised by a pack of pink flamingos.” One time during a trip to the zoo, Hunter Pence got separated from his human family for two hours. He was eventually found in the aviary section of the zoo chewing popcorn and spitting it into a baby bird’s mouth. Those two hours were wiped from all zoo surveillance cameras so it was never accounted for, but anyone who has seen the gangly man-bird run probably can figure out that Hunter Pence was trying to reproduce with an ostrich or some other tall bird. This week he shedded more than feathers. He lost the OCD tissue boxes he’s worn on his feet most of the season and went power crazy: 6 homers in the last week with two coming on Sunday. Hunter Pence said thank you to his H2H owners for believing in this half-bird creature. For next year, I think he’s bound to disappoint as his speed evaporates and goes back to where it was prior to this season (the 10-12-steal range), but for now enjoy a bird/guy who was an afterthought in drafts and has turned into a top five outfielder, according to our Player Rater. Anyway, here’s what else I saw this weekend in fantasy baseball:

Matt Davidson – 2-for-4, 2 runs and his 1st career homer, which ties him with 128,298 other players. Here’s what I said previously about him, “Here’s what Prospect Scott said, “Davidson’s power is legit, as evidenced by the .208 ISO he posted at Double-A last year. The 21-year-old projects to hit 25+ homers annually, but an aggressive approach will likely keep the AVG down. Still, he looks like an above-average 3B, and he’s not too far off. Or as Grey would say, ‘I’m a big dummy.’” What? Why would I say that? The natural inclination to think about when you see a Diamondbacks 3rd base prospect come up with big-time power and a weak average is to compare him to Mark Reynolds. But why such a tendency? What does that say about you? Psychoanalysis for another day. Reynolds had speed, Davidson doesn’t. He’s more in the mold of Pedro Alvarez until he can prove he won’t hit .240 and strikeout 27%+ of the time. I like Davidson a lot in NL-Only leagues, and deep mixed ones for upside, but he needs to get hot first before adding him in most mixed leagues.” And that’s me quoting me quoting Scott quoting me in a Möbius strip of quoting! Davidson did get two hits the last two days while starting, so deeper leagues should take notice. Could be the start of something.

Adam Eaton – 2-for-5, 2 runs, 1 RBI and 1 steal. I’m so crazy about this guy you could say I’m eating out of Eaton’s palm, which is hella confusing when said out loud. Yes, I still say hella, deal with it!

Josh Reddick – 2-for-4, 2 RBIs and his 12th homer and 2nd in his last three games, though that dates back to Thursday. Though, Part II: Thoughs Are Getting Old, Yoenis Cespedes is headed for an MRI on his shoulder. Well, not headed, but feeted for an MRI. That’s usually the direction one goes. There should be more news on Cespedes’s injury on Monday. Hopefully he has an A-1 day.

Jarrod Parker – Was supposed to pitch on Sunday, but Tommy Milone filled in valiantly (5 IP, 1 ER, 7 baserunners, 5 Ks). Parker should be fine; he was just sick, vomiting. Sounds like he’d make a good Phillie fan.

Josh Donaldson – 1-for-2 and his 23rd homer. This was his 4th homer in the last ten games as he got hot again to end the season. He’s definitely proved me wrong with his power. I’m not sure of what to make of him for next year yet, but I’m building a wall between myself and most 3rd basemen that will be taken in the first 75 overall, so I doubt I end up with him. Arenado will almost definitely be my Todd Frazier for 2014. Hmm, I should work on comparing him to someone else.

Corey Luebke – Shut down for the season. Back date that news to March.

Will Venable – 3-for-5, 1 run and his 20th steal. He’s cooled off recently, but when the Padres are away their players play for fantasy. <–Almost pithy!

Tommy Medica – 1-for-4 and his 2nd homer in his first 5 games. The Italian Hospital showed some power in the minor leagues. I’d prefer a guy trying to play hard for a job next year than a bloated All-Star who is coasting to the end of the regular season.

Burch Smith – 7 IP, 0 ER, 5 baserunners, 10 Ks. In attendance was a whole section of Smith’s fans dressed up in bear costumes to be Burch’s Root Bears. I’d hold off on getting your own Burch’s Root Bear costume because he’s not this good and for fear that someone confuses you with a Pedo Bear.

Tom Koehler – 8 IP, 0 ER, 3 baserunners, 5 Ks vs. Dillon Gee (7 1/3 IP, 0 ER, 8 baserunners, 8 Ks). The Major League Baseball Players Association was on hand to tape the Mets vs. MIA Marlins game to use as evidential proof next time a hitter is accused of PEDs.

Alex Gordon – 2-for-4 and his 20th homer, a solo shot from the leadoff spot, which translates to his 30th homer and 120th RBI from the cleanup spot while the Royals clinch a playoff spot.

Max Scherzer – 7 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 12 Ks. I feel like a ten-year-old Grey when my mustache was simply a Sharpie-drawn on ‘stache, but I really want Scherzer to win the Cy Young.

Jerome Williams – 7 IP, 1 ER, 5 baserunners, 3 Ks and the win. It was against the Asstros so we shouldn’t start reaching around on each other, but I’m pretty sure I told about 30 people to stream Williams on Sunday. You’re welcome. The Stream-o-Nator and I agree that he should be streamed again for his next start.

Wil Myers – 2-for-2, 2 runs, 2 RBIs and his 12th homer. Deuces are wild! Not “Douches Are Wild,” which is the reality show brothers-in-law, Scott Disick and Kanye are shopping around.

Josmil Pinto – 1-for-3, 3 RBIs and his 2nd homer. Josmil is no Wilson Ramos, but he is batting .405 and I did highlight him in Friday’s Buy. Pinto is keeping his schmotato fairly hot. Go with the hand of Grey.

Jean Segura – 2-for-4, 2 RBIs after getting 3 steals in the two previous games. Segura has cooled off since his crazy 1st half; I’m sure it didn’t help that he’s playing surrounded by Scootz Gennett and Scott by Halston.

Todd Frazier – 2-for-4, 2 RBIs and his 16th homer. This week, like most weeks for Frazier this season, hasn’t been that remarkable. He does have back-to-back two hit games and the aforementioned home run, so maybe the Hitter-Tron is onto something liking him a bit today vs. the Asstros.

Zach McAllister – 6 2/3 IP, 1 ER, 7 baserunners, 5 Ks. He gets the Astros next time out and, of course, it’s another streaming opportunity. BTW, I think a commenter said recently that some ‘pert at some other site said September is a bad time to stream. I think that’s about as bollocks as you get. September is the best time to stream. Minor leaguers are getting a chance, good teams are resting regulars and you know exactly how good or bad each team is. This week I streamed all over the place and had 90 IP in the RCL with 2.30 ERA and 1.02 WHIP. Yup.

Chris Sale – 5 2/3 IP, 6 ER, 12 baserunners, 7 Ks. I don’t own him anywhere, so I love the fact that his ERA went over 3. Give me any discount I can get next year on Sale. Pun point!

Domonic Brown – 1-for-4, 1 run as he returned to the starting lineup. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him sit a few times a week and be about as valuable as, say, Nick Swisher for the last two weeks. I loved owning Brown this year, but I’m not rushing to pick him back up. This time a year is about who’s hot now and not who was hot 3 months ago.

Wilson Ramos – 4-for-4, 2 runs, 5 RBIs and his 15th homer. Guys and four girl readers, he’s done that in 68 games. Zoinks! Even if he only had 120 games this year…Well, you can do the rudimentary misleading math by just doubling his stats. It’s not like he’s Arencibia’ing up his stats either. Ramos is hitting .286 on the year. Like everyone who avoids riding in death traps, Ramos is benefiting from losing his Suzuki sidekick.

Denard Span – 2-for-5, 1 RBI. Here’s a hint for you: look at which NL team has scored the most runs in September and try to own every guy on that team, especially the guy at the top of that lineup.

Miguel Gonzalez – 5 1/3 IP, 1 ER, 6 baserunners, 2 Ks but was pulled from the game because of his groin. If he were dressed like a pizza delivery man, it could’ve been the start of a porno.

Adam Lind – 2-for-3 and his 21st home run, as he hits .280. His season has really been all over the place. From crazy hot to ice cold. He has 4 homers in the last eight games, so there’s hotness coming out again that I’d get in on if I needed power.

Daniel Nava – 4-for-5, 1 run, 1 RBI. Sonavabench! Damn, these one late games kill ya for streaming hitters, ya know? I didn’t want to risk getting a DNP so I put Nava on the bench for some other schmohawk. Oh well, luckily, I’m kicking major ass in the RCL and it shouldn’t matter. Where ya at, Rudy?

Clay Buchholz – 6 IP, 0 ER, 6 baserunners, 3 Ks, lowering his ERA to 1.51 and upping his record to 11-0. Good move by him sitting out those three middle months when he would’ve had a 5+ ERA and went 1-8.

Matt Kemp – Could be activated for Monday. If he goes 35/35 in the final 12 days, he could salvage his season.

Shelby Miller – 5 IP, 1 ER, 5 baserunners, 1 K. It’s amazing the Cardinals can tie their own shoelaces wearing the kid gloves they’re using for Miller. Last year, he threw 150 IP; so far he has 161 IP in 2013. That means he’ll finish this season just barely with a couple more five inning starts.

Matt Adams – 2-for-5, 2 runs, 2 RBIs and his 14th homer and 3rd in the last five games. This stretch of games for Adams has been his most successful since a week in March during MTV’s Spring Break when he ran the table at Carlos and Charlie’s and took home five straight wet t-shirt contests. If you don’t know if you should pick up Adams, you haven’t been reading the site for the last week. Shame on you. For good measure, our fantasy football main man, Sky, made him this week’s Creeper.

Yadier Molina – 4-for-5, 3 runs and his 12th homer. Strained metaphor alert! Molina tracked down hits yesterday like his brothers track down buffets in their off-off-Broadway, loosely based on Hunger Games musical, Hungry Games.

In my semi finals matchup going into last nights game, Im up 6-4 and only winning by 1 RBI. He has an empty slot at catcher presumably to pick one up for the game. Is it “bush league” of me to beat him to it and pick up Salty and C Stewart or is that just being a smart GM?! Anyway, my buddy was/is pissssed at me for it!

@Giant Gigantes: #1 why are you able to pick up players for a night game? dont your line ups lock? jeesh thats ridiculous…. #2 you are the smarter GM, dont feel bad you did what it took to win…. he shouldn’t have even had the option to pick a guy up and if he’s gonna do it, DO IT, you snooze ya lose…. solid win, all he should do is TIP HIS CAP….

@Giant Gigantes: It’s legal but to me bordering on shady. One year I was in the finals with this one guy who got a lead in pitching and then started grabbing and dropping every pitcher so no one could get them off waivers. No waiver limit so he did this to death. I think Yahoo changed the rules so if you do that on the same day the guy goes back out on waivers.

All of this is legal but it just kind of goes against the fun of it – mano a mano, your guy vs. my guy. If it just comes down to who clicks the button faster that’s just nerdy bullshit. At least to me it is.

Grey, I have made it to the finals of my 12 team 6×6 HTH thanks in no small part to you, getting Miggy with the 1st pick, or Chris Davis’s 600th homer.

However I want your opinion on the week for former buy column specialist Anthiny Rizzo. Thinking of dropping him and adding Lind or Span for this week of HTH. No idea what I’ll need, just looking for productivity. I only get 6 roster moves and will need at least 4 for SP streaming. Thoughts?

@Grey: Thanks again Grey. I just double checked Adams matchups this week and not only does he get 4 @ COL, but all 7 games are projected to be against RHP. Yummy. The drop button on Rizzo felt good. No Champaign for him.

with my first pick Matt “the limp” Kemp coming off the DL (it looks like)…i have a decision to make….i picked up junior lake to stream this week(for anything) and just bc the cubs have 7 games this week . do i play the “wait and see” with Kemp? yahoo gives you a few days to activate a player and is lake my player to drop if kemp comes back? heres my lineup. or would it be worth dropping a closer for him? the team im playing has punted sv’s and sb. so i need to save all moves for sp. In theory i need to win 3 out of 8 cats bc i have the tiebreaker if we go 5-5. also you like quintana vs MIN? or hold til later in the wk to see where im at?

Hey Grey nice read again. I’m in the ship in my H2H 12 team 6×6 category league. I picked up Gattis last week while he was hot and now I’m wondering if Wilson Ramos or Pinto should be an add that I drop Gattis for? He’s seemed to have cooled off and Ramos and Pinto seem to be trying to prove something. I might just be over thinking it too. Thanks.

Playoffs start today in my NL-Only league. This could also be the beginning of the end. My team is the one seed and is facing a team that is barely over .500. My pitching staff is now worse than it has ever been thanks to recent injuries and shut downs (Harvey and Fernandez latest two). If I see another great season ended by crap in the playoffs, I might retire. It is getting old.

Last year I had a football team that went 11-2 and never scored fewer than 77 points (league average was somewhere in high 80s, low 90s). Playoffs come and my team scores 30 points! I have had a lot of this type of luck in the past four calendar years.

@Wallpaper Paterson: Grey can’t relate to the football example. Try grabbing guys that can be relevant later in the year at mid season. Roto is rad, you have to learn to eat a new meal…….how’s football going this year?

@Jack Full O’ Hate: I beat you inWeek 1 because you benched your last three players either by accident or on purpose (some ppl lose in Week 1 to get a top waiver addition). Then in Week 2, barring a multiple sack effort from Atkins tonight I will lose due to stupidity. See, I benched Julio Jones yesterday at about 12:53 because I was not sure if he would be limited or not. Did not watch or listen to any pregame shows yesterday. So, I received a gift and then gave a gift.

@Grey: I like that craziness of h2h. My complaint is being dominant in the RS and having a dud playoff performance. Give me a money league with some payouts based on RS success and I am all for it. This is what I was driving at this morning. My NL-Only league is for bragging rights only. I don’t believe in such a league again. 23 weeks of greatness could end in semi-finals disaster this week.

As for roto, I have a very difficult time with it and this includes years when I have a good team.

@Grey: like me, look for a h2h-roto hybrid league, where you play your team’s stats vs the opp’s teams, but it’s scored on a weekly basis, so the h2h immediacy is still there. Like a bunch of roto seasons put together.

@Wallpaper Paterson: H2H and Roto are apples and oranges…the trick to H2H is you gotta stop at the seeds…don’t eat the seeds…the seeds will make you sick…Roto smells better, but it is much more boring to eat…soft and mushy and most people eat Roto cuz it’s good for you…in fact, most people just peel and squish all their Rotos together to get a bland, faceless, juice that is bought and then sold, or sold and then bought, by both Dan Akroyd and Eddie Murphy…Jamie Lee Curtis was obviously a Daily, FanDuel type player…point is, H2H is not fair……get over it…Life is not fair, period period period Anyone who was paying attention knew that Jo Fer was getting shutdown early…being a rookie and being on a team that had nothing to play for…you should have been able to prepare for that situation…you have to prepare a H2H team for a playoff run…it is a lot more challenging than managing a Roto team because you have to be aware of matchups and players who will most likely be getting shutdown due to their teams being out of the race…and most importantly you need to be preparing to beat the team that you are playing right now…that is the most exciting and most challenging part about H2H…you not only have to put the best team out there everyday like in Roto, but you have to put the team out there that is going to beat the team that you are playing right now! And, again, it doesn’t always work out…You have to be able to embrace the fact that you made the correct decision, with the information that you had at the time, and not necessarily focus solely on the results…and if this doesn’t help…you can always take your H2H team apples outside and stomp the shit out of them…leave them out there to rot and ferment and you will have some delicious Hard Apple Cider to drink while drafting your next H2H team that will torment you!

I asked guru this too so wanted to consult all Razzball expertise for championship week. I loaded up with a bunch of 2 start guys in advance so my potential opponent couldnt.. this is my pitching staff, hows it look? Points league (daily)- Championship is 2 weeks long, 24 max starts from my pitching

= noticed cueto is coming back.. should I add him and dump porcello, kluber, gray, Y. petit or K.Gregg? I feel confident in those streamer options, going to drop petit after his mets start for Roark vs MIA hopefully.

Looking for good streamers this week. Took a poll of your weekend writers on Cueto asking – Cueto is starting tomorrow @HOU(Bedard). He’s on a pitch count. Do you think he’ll get enough pitches to qualify for a W and not kill my rates?

Sky: I don’t start guys coming off injury
jaywong: against hou, I think so

Also, Petit (SF) and Wheeler (NYM) face each other Tuesday. Who’s more likely to give me a chance at a W and K’s w/o killing rates?

@Grey: Thanks for the advice all year! On Cueto, I guess I was thinking that, against such a weak team, he might have a chance to go 5 and get a W. I am assuming that he would do at least OK with whatever number of innings he pitched since the Reds have seen his sim game and are in a tight pennant race and therefore feel he’s good enough to do at least decent (i.e. not much risk to me). They could have easily gone with their normal rotation (w/Leake) since they had a day off last week.

Sup Grey… Championship time is here and I don’t know if I would’ve done it without you, Thanks Guys!!! Is Mujica even closing anymore? I have Uehara and him, do you think I should drop Mujica for a pitcher that’s pitching twice this week like Locke or keep him??

Also, need steals/OBP in addition to counting out of 2b/ss. Better off with Aaron Hill/Villar or Bonificio/Zobrist. Or am I a better punting steals and going Hill/Zobrist? I am going against #1 in steals but he has ellsbury out. I have Trout/Goldy for steals so really need Boni/Villar unless I punt.

Hmm.. I don’t like the sound of that. I guess I might have Gray as a two starter? ESPN still isn’t listing it. So then I would need two more. Kluber is available so maybe him and Petit? Haren is available too.. this would be so much easier if I just had my beloved Jofer *sobs*

Grey, I’m in the finals for the second straight year – thanks for all your advice! Last year I came up short but I’m feeling good about this week… we’ll see how it turns out. Outta moves now so my guys are what I’ve got at this point. Wish me luck!

Yo Oaktown Steve, whats up with Sunny Gray. yesterday it says he is starting and today it says it will be Parker, any word from the hometown to whats going on, I looked at their schedule on ESPN and it says he is not scheduled for the next week

Parker was scratched sick yesterday. Just listened to the Melvin show on the flagship station. Parker is going tonight according to Bob and everybody is going to bump back one day; nobody’s getting skipped. Gray will go tomorrow.

– Take a chance on Kemp being productive this week
– Add Ramos for one start (today) while Posey is off (or keep playing Ramos over Posey or ARam at DH)
– Add Doolittle for speculative saves (need saves in my championship H2H matchup)
– Add Petit for his 2 starts (@ NYM, @ NYY)

Grey – thanks for all your help this year! I have 3 questions in 10 team points league:

Drop B.Miller (injured for at least a couple days) for Aybar, A. or Y. Escobar, or Lake? Hitter-tron likes Aybar best after Miller.

Drop Ruf for Aoki?

Drop McCallister for Gattis or Rosario? This is for UT position…I have Aramis penciled in but he had a wrist injury recently. Hitter-tron likes Rosario out of the bunch but he always gets hard for Col players.

Hi Grey, for the championship in a 2 week H2H Points playoff I’m looking mostly for good QS’s. Need help with my last starter. Here are what I think will be the final matchups for each this year. Thanks!!
K.Medlen – @ Cubs; vs Brewers
D.Holland – @TB, vs Houston, @LAA
D.Salazar – @ KC, vs CWS, @ Minn

Tough decisions on who to drop because of keepers. Marte and Fernandez are of no use to me right now but I am planning to keep them. I was thinking to punt hardy or zobrist to get Villar at SS/MI for SB. I can also punt Martin to pick up an OF option w/ Span, Davis, Young available.

For pitching, zeigler is available who has been good. Picked up Frieri last week by dropping a hitter. As far as SP, I can use Ubaldo as a streamer spot but overall I have 106 innings left. With 7 pitching slots and 17 starts left, at an avg of 6 innings, I will hit my limit without even probably needing Ubaldo anymore.

Overall, I think I answered my questions through the process of writing this meaningless diatribe but since its already written might as well see what you think considering all this:

1. Drop Hardy/Zobrist for Villar?
2. Drop Martin for Span, Young, Davis?
3. Drop Ubaldo for the Zeigler (7th closer), If I need the innings, I can always drop a closer for a SP?

Keeping E5 in the 8th round next season and the 7th the year after before losing him is probably better than keeping Xander Bogaerts or Yelich in the 17th round next year, 9th year after, and then the 8th before losing them, correct?

Trying to decide if I should burn my last move of the season on Xander or use it to pick up another streamer or closer to try and secure a finals victory. Much obliged!

Sup Grey? No questions today as I’m out of moves.. but I made the finals!! On the line is a cool G note and bragging rights. I lucked out and have 5 (!) two-start pitchers, though I have Miller down, Craig still out, and Moss facing a bunch of lefties.. still like my chances.

Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks for all that you do. Definitely couldn’t have made it this far without your sage advice. Already looking forward to next season!

@Grey: Parker was supposed to pitch yesterday but got sick. He now may pitch today, in which case they would either bump the entire rotation or just skip Gray. I havent read anything which has confirmed either way…..

I’m in the finals, Goldy and Donaldson won it for me in the semis. Now its time to separate the men from the,….errr….. other men (and 4 women) that aren’t going to be number 1 in their league. No moves left. Can’t stream. Intense. Thanks for all the solid advise this season!

Hope you kick some ass in the finals too man! Already excited for next year. Soon the only thing I’ll be watching is Tom Brady throw perfect passes to rookies that can’t catch.. Sigh…. I don’t even bother with fantasy football, its too mindless.

Fantasy football = checkers with A-rod
Fantasy baseball = Chess on the old NES set on hard

Right? Maybe not. But I love me some baseball and your blog is the first thing I read when I get up in the wee hours of the morning. Thanks again, and I look forward to playing in a razzball league in 14′

Grey… from scanning the above responses, it sounds like you’re all in on Kazmir today in KC. I hadn’t considered him until I read that, so I’m wondering how much you believe in this start? I don’t want to start off my finals matchup with a dent in my pitching cats. On the other hand, it would be really nice to have a boost coming out of the gate. It’s for that reason that I refuse to start Porcello today. Would love your thoughts on Kaz. Thanks.

ha – yeah, i’m fighting for 2nd place right now. grey’s done really well streaming down the stretch and caught some breaks (he has like 24 saves in last 2 weeks with 4 closers). doing my best to grind out offense and stream to 180 GS…

@Gareth: Yeah, Porcello is available in my league too, but I’d rather throw Kazmir or nobody over Porcello. He’s burned me so many damn times that I’d never forgive myself if I let him sink my finals matchup. Incidentally, Rudy is starting Porce-LOL-o today and Grey has Kazmir going. Will be interested to see who wins the stream-fight!

I’m so insanely close to the promise land, I can almost taste it. Mmmmm sweet whoopie pie……

Couple of quick questions for you going forward this week. I’m only allowed three moves per week so keep in mind:

Is it worth picking up Dee Gordon or staying put with good ole Scooter? Scooter doesn’t seem to be running at all anymore and he seems to be double switched every game and with Hanley’s injury I can’t help but think SAGNOF…..

Holds are counted so who would you rather role with for the week: Paco (currently on team), Jake the Snake McGee, Sean Doolitle, Kintzler, or Tanner?

You think it’s cool to drop Torii Hunter in order to stream guys in lineup for next two weeks (i.e Adams)

For outfield, I like span, I just don’t trust Dom brown- I have a feeling he may get days off here & there & since my league locks at first game tonight I’d be screwed lol considering its the championship round it’s smaller margin for error

Oh Goldy, I traded you away for some guy named after an overrated soap actress and Two Face (Harvey) Dent. I am gonna be regretting this all year as you make another run for MVP and Eva(n) Longoria bats .250 with 20 homers and Harvey has surgery to try to become Matt again.

It’s oddly liberating not to care what happens in the final few wks, but I would rather have some meaningful games. Sometimes you just get beat down by that 250lb Lady Luck so badly you give up. This smurf went in the wilderness for more than 1 wk and didn’t even bother to check in on the team once. I can’t remember the last time that happened.

Mr grey. Your sage wisdom got me to my h2h finals. Its a 14 team dynasty w over 90% of each roster kept. Just yell at me and tell me to drop chatwood, daniel duffy, Tyson ross and maybe estrada on Thursday for end of the week starters. I’m trying to balance keepers w win now. I always focus on the future too much. I really like duffy and Estrada out of them but bounce them and go for the money right?

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly was not certain when Puig would return.
“I’m thinking somewhere between seven and 10 days for him, hopefully, maybe two or three weeks, I don’t know,” Mattingly said, according to ESPN.com. “Or, it could be tomorrow. I’m not sure.”No further tests for Puig have been scheduled.Puig has been bothered by hip problems periodically over the past few weeks.

I’m thinking with Kemp back and a guaranteed spot in the postseason it seems likely they’ll baby him, so he’s fresh for the postseason.

So there’s seems to be a disconnect between Bret Lawrie’s match ups and his rating on Hitter tron. Hs has a $16.9 value for the week according to the tron, but has the following career numbers against these guys:

@Grey: That would be it. Either a catcher, (Sal Perez and Carlos Ruiz are available) or one last start. I’m really caught between a rock and a hard place…

This is what I get for picking up FA busts.. I picked up Chris Carter for $7, Dayan Viciedo for $7, John Jay for $5, Rutledge for $5… All just to drop them after a few days. Should have manage my budget better, but I’m in the semi-final now…

I was looking at possibly adding Rayburn for the week. It appears he gets lefties the next 2 games, Duffy and Chen. Then Keuchel and Oberholtzer to start the series vs Hou. Then Clemens the righty so he sits Saturday. Bedard Sunday. I think Rayburn is in a strict platoon but a 1.100 something OPS vs lefties. He hit 3rd last game vs a lefty, Chris Sale. And he’s hitting well for a team trying to win. I’ve talked myself into it.

In the keeper, the Games Started stat (stupid stat that it is) is the big unknown. It’s possible to go all starters on the final day and pick up a truckload of points. I did it last year, gained 7 points on the final day and came much closer to winning than I had a right to…

After losing I went back and looked at if I had not have traded rivera for m.perez i would’ve tied wins and losses and still lost era by 2.48-2.58. I would’ve then went 5-4-4, which is a win. But it would’ve been in the most ugly fashion possible, I ONLY would have won from that bullshit Rivera win where he really got a save instead of a win. The absolute worst way to win, from some terrible playcaller’s gambling problem b.s. It did teach me a valuable lesson though, decent streamers are much easier to find when half of the teams (8) are out of the playoffs. Those 8 teams aren’t busy picking up the Mcallisters/Rogers out there. I may have slightly overreacted to 3/4 of my likely playoff opp’s having more SP than me. Of course, had my opp not picked up and then promptly benched span 3 out of 4 days last week even though he needed runs/steals i would not have gone 5-4-4, it would’ve been 5-5-3. I did not have the tiebreaker.

@Grey: I would have wanted for that win not to count had I got it though, non-objective bullshit rulings like that rivera “win” benefiting me would have hurt. But at the same time what could i have done, my team would have advanced, opp’s wouldn’t have.

who’s best for holds and general pitcher goodness now, farnsworth/carpenter/doolittle. I grabbed doolittle last night while throwing away grilli (i forgot to do this in one league, i had dropped grilli at least 5 days before elsewhere)

10 teamer semi-finals where i had the best season team just coming off of a bye, are any of these better than any of my sort of thing. I have 2 utils
MY: lucroy/myers/villar/andrus/edwin(just waivered him)/jackson

Free agents: ramos/morales/calhoun/yelich/sierra/laroche/adams/pinto/avila/ruiz/aybar(he might be better, but I’m keeping at least one of villar/andrus for steals, this team is only weak at steals)

Just to get in on some Goldschmidt love here, I have to mention that his 4 for 4 on the final day of my semi-final match-up saved my BA lead by the narrowist of margins. This preserved a 5-5 tie that I won by virtue of being the higher seed to advance to the championship round. I did the math and a 2 for 4 would have left me short. Thanks Goldy! And thank you, Grey. Your love of the Gold Standard motivated me to draft him in both leagues I am in.

I’ll be looking for next year’s Goldschmidt here as I know there’s no way in hell I’ll be able to get him in the re-draft league.

In a 12×12 H2H league doing K/9 and QS, would you take Petit over Nova or Haren? Have Waino, Bumgarner, Ryu, Salazar, and Miller. Need someone to get me better all around in playoffs. Streamonator loves Petit like crazy this week!

Grey, like any under 50% owned batty calls from tomorrow’s braves/Nats double header? I didn’t see anything that looks promising (andrelton, bj, elliott Johnson, Gattis, Rendon were first guys I thought of). Asche would be the drop…

Am I the only person who can’t figure Cobb out? I’ve missed out on all of his 0 ER starts and most of his 1 ER starts as well. I’ve gotten all of his bad ones. Benched him this week and he’s dissecting the Rangers. I really enjoy owning him, so I’d like to freaking reap the benefits of said ownership! confused, silly emoticon

@Grey: he can still help me try to get 9th draft slot next year so i can get him again (if comish keeps the rules the same the best playoff team (5th place) that doesn’t get paid (top 4 get paid) gets the best draft slot after the non playoff teams draft.

what’s the keeper order of these guys, cargo/ellsbury/upton/machado/f.hernandez/braun. can only keep 4 and ellsbury and cargo are on waivers (comish just offered this league to be keeper), just pick top 4.